The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts

Whether Arthur had a saint or a wizard at his side is hard to tell. Perhaps one of the things that made him extraordinary in his day was that he kept a wizard even though he was at least a nominal Christian. He may have had a wizard in his entourage to get the other point of view.

MEURIG AP TEWDRIG

A king of Gwent, the son of Dyfrig (also known by his Latin name, St. Dubricius).

Meurig married Onbrawst, daughter of Gwrgant Mawr, son of Cynfyn, son of Pebaw, son of Erb, King of Erging. His son was Arthrwys.

MODRED

See Arthur.

MORCANT

See Urien.

MORINI

An Iron Age tribe in Gaul with its main center at Boulogne.

MUIRCHETACH MAC ERCA

High King of Ireland from 503. Muirchetach mac Erca held the High Kingship very conspicuously for 30 years, dominating political and military affairs in much the same way that Arthur is thought to have dominated in southern Britain.

MUSIC

“The sound of song and of the harp filled Tara’s halls.” Music had a place at every feast (See Food and Feasting), and probably in the musicians’ homes as well. Flutes were made out of bones; pan pipes were made out of bone or wood. There were also horns. The large, curved bronze trumpet found at Lough-na-Shade in County Armagh dates from about 100 BC.

The most remarkable Irish hoard, found at Downs in County Offaly, was a collection of nearly 200 bronze objects that had been deposited in a lake or bog, probably over a long period. Among the objects were 26 great, curving, bronze horns. They would have made a noise somewhere between a bull-horn and a didgeridoo, and they appear to be distinctively Irish in character.

MYNYDD MWYNFAWR

See The Gododdin, Urien.

MYRDDIN

The bard of Gwenddolau, and the model for the legendary Merlin. Myrddin took no part in the Battle of Arderydd, but he watched it. When he saw his lord killed, he lost his reason and retreated to the Wood of Celidon. By the eleventh century, this had become:

The Battle of Arderydd between the sons of Elifer and Gwenddolau the son of Ceidio; in which battle Gwenddolau fell; Merlin became mad.

According to legend, in the time before Albion (Britain) was peopled, it was known as Clas Myrddin—Merlin’s Grove (see Symbols: Treasure).

NAMNETES

An Iron Age Celtic tribe living in southern Brittany, along the lower Loire, with its main center at Nantes.

In 56 BC the Namnetes formed an alliance with the Veneti to fight against Julius Caesar’s fleet. The ensuing sea battle was won by the Roman fleet commanded by Decimus Brutus.

An island close to the mouth of the Loire, perhaps the Ile de Noirmoutier, was known as the Women’s Island. No man was allowed to land there. The women living on the island had to sail to the mainland for sex. They had a custom of replacing their temple roof on the same day every year: each woman on the island bringing her own load of materials for the work. If any woman dropped her load, she was torn to pieces by the others, who then carried her limbs around the temple, crying, “Ev-ah!” in a frenzy. If the temple roof was made of reeds, it probably would have needed replacing every year, as described. The Celts were also noted for believing that it was unlucky to drop new materials. Circumambulation, the ritual of walking round a building, was also a common Celtic practice.

NATAN-LEOD

The Celtic king of an inland part of Hampshire at the end of the sixth century. He was killed by Cerdic, the leader and later king of the West Saxons.

NATH-I

A High King of Ireland who died while crossing the Alps in 428. He was struck by lightning. It was believed to be divine retribution for his destruction of a tower built by a hermit called Fermenus.

NECTAN

A Cornish saint, the eldest son of King Brychan of Wales. Nectan was killed by robbers who stole his cows.

NINIAN OF WHITHORN

A fourth-century British saint whose father was King of Alcluith. Ninian studied for several years in Rome. On his way home he visited St. Martin of Tours, who lent him the masons who built the stone church at Whithorn, a holy place with a high reputation in the fifth and sixth centuries. Martin died in 397.

Ninian cured the blindness of King Tuduvallus, the local king, also known as Tuduael or Tutaguel of Alcluith.

When Ninian died, he was buried at Whithorn.

OGHAM

Some of the ancient Celts used a strange alphabet that was developed specifically for making short inscriptions on standing stones. One edge of the standing slab was used as the writing line and short horizontal linear marks were made from this, to right or left or both. They were carved singly or in groups of up to five. In this way 20 different characters could be created.

The resulting alphabet was sometimes known as Beth Luis Nuin, after the (original) first three letters, just as with ABC for our modern Western alphabet. The surviving layout of the alphabet means that the system should logically be called Beth Luis Fearn (one, two, and three horizontal strokes to the right, respectively). The fact that the alphabet is known as Beth Luis Nuin shows that there was a still older Gaelic system, of which only the nickname has survived.

Because the basis of the alphabet was a vertical line and the characters were lines branching to left and right from it, the system was like a tree, and it is sometimes called the Ogham Tree. This idea led on to giving the characters the names of trees. Beth means “birch,” Luis means “rowan,” and Nuin means “ash.” The system is a tree; the alphabet itself is a forest. Individual trees held high symbolic significance, so the forest alphabet was deemed to be a repository of wisdom. The word for “knowledge” also means “wood.”

Inscriptions are read from the bottom up, the way a tree grows.

The name “Ogham” comes from the name of the Irish god Ogma, the god of poetry and learning who is said to have devised the alphabet himself.

It is likely the Ogham alphabet was used for writing on perishable materials such as wood, leather, and bark, but these have not survived. The inscriptions that have survived are all on stone and they all date from AD 300 to 700.

The intensification of agriculture in Ireland meant that many Ogham stones were threatened. Some were rescued and put on display at University College Cork; the West Wing Stone Corridor there houses the largest collection of Ogham stones in Ireland. These stones are a national treasure, in that they represent the earliest examples of writing in Ireland, unless we count the remarkable Neolithic symbols carved on the Boyne passage graves. Another collection of Ogham stones is housed at Mount Melleray monastery near Cappoquin in County Waterford.

Some of the standing stones were raised as boundary markers. Some, mainly the later ones, were raised to mark graves. Many of the surviving Ogham inscriptions have been translated to read “name of person + name of father + name of tribe.”

An Ogham stone from Ballymorereagh in County Kerry carries a Latin inscription on its face, which reads FECT QUENILOC, “Made by Qeniloc.” Along the edge is Qeniloc’s name and ancestry in Ogham.

Ogham was not confined to Ireland; Irish migrants took it to Wales.

OLLAMH FOOLA

See Genealogy.

OPPIDUM

Each tribe had at least one oppidum: a big market center with everything except a defensive rampart. By the first century BC every civitas had at least one, which functioned as its capital. It was a kind of town, with residential areas and areas of workshops, though unlike modern towns, it also included pasturage for livestock. Julius Caesar noted that he found a great many livestock in Cassivellaunus’s oppidum.

Caesar’s account of the Gallic War is of particular interest because the date of his account is so precise, 58–51 BC, and this is exactly the time when the Celtic oppida were at their fullest development.

ORDOVICES

See Caratacus.

OSISMII

A Celtic tribe in Gaul, living in the extreme north-west of Brittany. They were first mentioned by the Greek traveler Pytheas in the fourth century BC. He located them on the western tip of Brittany, on a headland then called Kabaion; this was later known by the Latin name Finis Terrae, the End of the World, and is still known by the French version of this, Finistère.

The main town of the Osismii was Vorgium: modern Carhaix. The tribe submitted to Julius Caesar in 57 BC, though the following year they joined the Veneti in a revolt against Caesar, who suppressed them.

OSSIAN

Ossian was an ancient Gaelic bard invented by James Macpherson. The Poems of Ossian, also concocted by Macpherson, were published in the 1760s. They were an immediate sensation and Ossian acclaimed as a Celtic Homer.

During the next 30 years, the poems were widely read and translated into many languages. Goethe translated parts into German. Napoleon carried a copy with him on his march to Moscow. He also commissioned the artist Ingres to paint The Dream of Ossian.

The poems were extremely influential. They gave a huge impetus to the dawning Romantic movement. Poets as different from each other as Blake, Byron, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were affected by them. The composers Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Brahms wrote music inspired by Ossian. The poems also stimulated the study of folklore and ancient Celtic languages.

When Macpherson first published his book, he claimed it was a translation of an ancient manuscript in Gaelic: a copy of an original work by Ossian. Several people challenged this, including Samuel Johnson, who said the poetry was the work of Macpherson himself, but Macpherson neither owned up nor produced the ancient manuscript. The controversy went on for many years.

Macpherson’s fake Celtic world was based on some authentic Celtic material. Fingal is based on Fionn Mac Cumhaill; Temora is Tara; Cuthulinn is Cú Chulainn; and Dar-Tula is Deirdre of the Sorrows. Parallels such as these create an air of authenticity, but most of the incident is Macpherson’s own invention.

One of the poems is Fingal. Macpherson presented his “translation” in continuous prose. Here I have broken it up into lines to make it easier to read. This is how Book 1 opens:

Cuthullin sat by Tura’s wall;

by the tree of the rustling sound.

His spear leaned against the rock.

His shield lay on the grass by his side.

Amid his thoughts of mighty Cairbar,

a hero slain by the chief in war;

the scout of ocean comes, Moran the son of Fithil!

“Arise,” said the youth, “Cuthullin, arise.

I see the ships of the north!

Many, chief of men, are the foe.

Many the heroes of the sea-borne Swaran!”

“Moran!’ replied the blue-eyed chief.

“Thou ever tremblest, son of Fithil!

Thy fears have increased the foe.

It is Fingal, king of deserts,

with aid to green Erin of streams.”

“I beheld their chief,” says Moran,

“tall as a glittering rock. His spear is a blasted pine.

His shield the rising moon! He sat on the shore!

like a cloud of mist on the silent hill!’

“Many, chief of heroes!” I said,

“many are our hands of war.

Well art thou named, the mighty man;

but many mighty men are seen from

Tura’s windy walls.”

He spoke, like a wave on a rock,

“Who in this land appears like me?

Heroes stand not in my presence:

they fall to earth from my hand.

Who can meet Swaran in fight?

Who but Fingal, king of Selma of storms?

Once we wrestled on Malmor;

our heels overturned the woods.

Rocks fell from their place;

rivulets, changing their course,

fled murmuring from our side.

Three days we renewed the strife;

heroes stood at a distance and trembled.

On the fourth, Fingal says, the king of the ocean fell,

but Swaran says he stood!

Let dark Cuthullin yield to him,

that is strong as the storms of his land!

#x2019; “No!” the blue-eyed chief replied.

I never yield to mortal man!

Dark Cuthullin shall be great or dead!

Go, son of Fithil, take my spear.

Strike the sounding shield of Semo.

It hangs at Tura’s rustling gale.

The sound of peace is not its voice!

My heroes shall hear and obey.’

He went. He struck the bossy shield.

The hills, the rocks reply.

The sound spreads along the wood:

deer start by the lake of roes.

Curach leaps from the sounding rock!

and Connal of the bloody spear!

Crugal’s breast of snow beats high.

The son of Favi leaves the dark-brown hind.

“It is the shield of war,” said Ronnart;

“the spear of Cuthullin,” said Lugar!

Son of the sea, put on thy arms!

Calmar, lift thy sounding steel!

Puno! dreadful hero, arise!

Cairbar, from thy red tree of Cromla!

Bend thy knee, O Eth!

descend from the streams of Lena.

Caolt, stretch thy side as thou movest along

the whistling heath of Mora:

thy side that is white as the foam of

the troubled sea,

when the dark winds pour it on

rocky Cuthon.

Now I behold the chiefs,

in the pride of their former deeds!

Their souls are kindled at the battles of old;

at the actions of other times.

Their eyes are flames of fire.

They roll in search of the foes of the land.

Their mighty hands are on their swords.

Lightning pours from their sides of steel.

They come like streams from the mountains;

each rushes roaring from the hill.

Bright are the chiefs of battle,

in the armour of their fathers.

Gloomy and dark, their heroes follow

like the gathering of the rainy clouds

behind the red meteors of heaven.

The sounds of crashing arms ascend.

The grey dogs howl between.

Unequal bursts the song of battle.

Rocking Cromla echoes round.

On Lena’s dusky heath they stand,

like mist that shades the hills of autumn;

when broken and dark it settles high,

and lifts its head to heaven.

PABO POST PRYDAIN

Pabo Post Prydain, “The Pillar of Britain,” was a king of the northern Pennines and brother of Eliffer of York. His territory was south of the Tyne, with borders on the Vale of York and the Pennine frontier of Rheged. His son Dunawt was chief of the Northern Alliance that eventually destroyed Urien.

PATRICK

St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, was probably born in South Wales. His father was a Romano-British deacon named Calpurnius, and his own Celtic name was Succat.

According to legend, Patrick was abducted as a 16-year-old boy by Irish slave traders in about 405 or 410 and carried off to Ireland. He was sold in County Antrim to a chief called Milchu. He managed to escape after six years of captivity and made his way 200 miles overland to board ship. He was at sea for three days, then made his way home to his parents. They urged him never to leave again, but a deep restlessness inspired dreams that made him travel to Rome. He became a monk in Gaul, first at Tours, then at Lerins, before returning to convert his captors. According to Patrick himself, he had decided a long time before that he would have to return to Ireland.

Patrick was consecrated a bishop at the age of 45. In 432 he is believed to have been sent by Pope Celestine I to Ireland as a missionary. He landed at Wicklow and from there sailed north to convert his former master Milchu. In Down he was able to convert another chief, Dichu, to Christianity, and at Tara he preached to Loegaire, King of Tara. He also converted the tyrannous Mac Cuil, who became bishop of the Isle of Man.

After 20 years of missionary work, Patrick fixed his see at the royal center of Armagh, close to the ancient capital of Emain Macha, in 454. He died at Saul in 459 and was probably buried at Armagh.

As a slave himself, Patrick had the strongest personal motive for preaching against slavery. He preached from experience. In an open letter probably written in 445, he censured King Coroticus (Ceretic) of Clyde for stealing Irishwomen and selling them to the Picts as slaves. King Coroticus was not only a pagan, he was a committed anti-Christian. According to Patrick’s hagiographer, Patrick turned him into a fox.

In the 450s, Patrick came into conflict with the wizards of King Loegaire, son of Niall, at Tara (See Magicians). Murchu describes the trial of strength:

The fierce heathen emperor of the barbarians reigned in Tara, the Irish capital. His name was Loegaire, son of Niall. He had wise men, wizards, soothsayers, enchanters and inventors of every black art who were also in their heathen, idolatrous way to know and foresee everything that happened. Two of them were above the rest, their names being Lothroch and Lucetmael.

They predicted that a strange new and troublesome faith would come and overthrow kingdoms.

A pagan festival, Beltane, coincided with Patrick’s celebration of Easter. On the eve of Beltane when a great sacred bonfire was lit, a fire was seen to be burning in the direction of Tara: the religious focus of Ireland. This was surprising, as only the magi were authorized to kindle such a fire. They anxiously approached the blaze and found Patrick and his followers chanting psalms round their campfire.

Patrick was summoned to the Assembly at Tara, where he eloquently defended his mission. The magi challenged him to perform a miracle to prove divine support, but he refused. The magi then cast a spell and blanketed the landscape in heavy snow. Patrick made the sign of the cross and the illusion evaporated.

All kinds of magic feats were performed during this contest between Patrick’s white magic and Lothroch’s black arts. At one point Patrick caused one of the magicians to rise up into the air, fall headlong, and brain himself on a rock.

A great deal has been written about Patrick but his only certain literary remains are his spiritual autobiography, called Confession, and the letter he wrote to Coroticus. The point of his Confession was to explain why he would not return to Britain. The implication is that a British synod claimed authority over him and summoned him in order to exert that authority. Patrick implies that he could override the wishes of the British synod, and he evidently had Pope Leo’s (440–61) approval to support him.

In spite of his high profile, Patrick did not have any obvious successor and in the years following his death he was seen in Ireland as just one saint among many.

PAUL AURELIAN